WPF - Drawing on canvas with mouse events

Dawid B picture Dawid B · Apr 16, 2013 · Viewed 60.2k times · Source

I have a problem with handling mouse events on canvas. I want to draw on it using mouse and I've come up with these event handlers, but they don't do anything when I start drawing.

    private void paintSurface_MouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.ButtonState == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
            currentPoint = e.GetPosition(this);
    }

    private void paintSurface_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
        {
            Line line = new Line();

            line.Stroke = SystemColors.WindowFrameBrush;
            line.X1 = currentPoint.X;
            line.Y1 = currentPoint.Y;
            line.X2 = e.GetPosition(this).X;
            line.Y2 = e.GetPosition(this).Y;

            currentPoint = e.GetPosition(this);

            paintSurface.Children.Add(line);
        }
    }

Can you help me by telling what's missing or how to rewrite it so it'll start working?

Answer

Andy picture Andy · Apr 16, 2013

I'm willing to bet that your canvas isn't receiving mouse events because it's background property is set to transparent

This works fine for me.

enter image description here

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Canvas  Name="paintSurface" MouseDown="Canvas_MouseDown_1" MouseMove="Canvas_MouseMove_1" >
        <Canvas.Background>
            <SolidColorBrush Color="White" Opacity="0"/>
        </Canvas.Background>
    </Canvas>
</Window>


using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace WpfApplication1
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {

        Point currentPoint = new Point();

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Canvas_MouseDown_1(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseButtonEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.ButtonState == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
                currentPoint = e.GetPosition(this);
        }

        private void Canvas_MouseMove_1(object sender, System.Windows.Input.MouseEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.LeftButton == MouseButtonState.Pressed)
            {
                Line line = new Line();

                line.Stroke = SystemColors.WindowFrameBrush;
                line.X1 = currentPoint.X;
                line.Y1 = currentPoint.Y;
                line.X2 = e.GetPosition(this).X;
                line.Y2 = e.GetPosition(this).Y;

                currentPoint = e.GetPosition(this);

                paintSurface.Children.Add(line);
            }
        }

    }
}